Sunday, March 20, 2011

Vegetable Rice Pie

Since I never give recipes star ratings, it would be pointless to say this is a five-star recipe; you have nothing with which to compare it. So let me just say this to illustrate how delicious vegetable rice pie is: I'm famished just remembering the name of the recipe!

I found the recipe on AllRecipes, home to many rare and scrumptious vegan ideas. One of the best, and most underused, cooking ideas is to create a pie with a rice crust, in lieu of a traditional pie crust. For veggie dishes, you should definitely try this out; I promise, the taste of your dish immediately will increase.

Although the recipe called for a pie pan, I fortunately chose to make it in a larger casserole dish. Once I had all the ingredients ready, I realized there was just too much food to fit into a pie pan. So for those of you who do want to serve it in a pie pan, go light on everything, especially the rice. More advice: do use fresh vegetables, as the recipe suggests! I know it is convenient and easy to use frozen vegetables in your cooking, but this recipe is definitely worth the freshness. I find that frozen vegetables often lack the taste and flavor of fresh produce, so therefore I usually must compensate with a heavy amount of seasoning. However, this time, I added just a dash of "herbs de provence" and let the onion and cheese carry the recipe into its savory self!

However, I did make one major alteration: I made a top shell for the dish using mozzarella cheese, which I would definitely do again. Mozzarella provides a yummy contrast to the Parmesan and is a good coating for broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots. Vegetable rice pie is definitely in my top five favorite recipes. Make it tonight for dinner; I guarantee you'll eat every bite!